A/N:Before i start w/ the 10th chapt. of this fic, i want to say something. When i said in the first chapter, that Tris was "leaner", which in fact does mean a little bit skinnier, i did in NO way mean to imply that people need to be skinny so other people can fall in love with them. We were doing this excersise in school(in English), where we're supposed to 'show' instead of 'tell', so by saying that she was leaner, i was trying to show that she has been working a lot, and doing a lot of magic, causing her to lose some weight. But either way...I think Briar, and everyone else would love her just the same.

Ok, now on w/ Chapt 10!

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Briar, Sandry, and Daja were little figures on the horizon from from where Tris stood. The green halo was right above her in the sky, and the light shimmered faintly around the whole hub. That halo was obviously very evil, the screams had confirmed that, but now the winds did. She couldn't quite put her finger on what it was, but she needed to find out. Whatever it was, was totally disrupting the wind patterns, and hurting people. So slowly, she breathed in for seven counts...

"Mila save u-" she heard in her mind, it sounded like Briar, but she quickly blocked out all other sounds from her mind, including his, as well as Daja's and Sandry's mind voices.

"1...2...3...4...5...6...7..." she counted again, then slowly reached part of her 'magical' self out, to touch the halo, to see what was causing the thing. It took her awhile to calm the winds around the hub, so that she could actually get to the green thing, but she did it. Slowly, she inched her way towards it, until the tips of her 'fingers' touched it. But as soon as they had touched, the tendrils of mist attached to her chest, knocking her magical self back into her real self, and her real self to the ground.

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"Tris!" The three of them screamed, as they tried to shake her, so she would 'wake up'"

"Tris!" Briar mindcalled. "Tris!" he screamed into her mind, out of the four of them, he thought he would have the best chance of getting through, they had been closer than she was to the other two girls...but then he remembered the fight, and how tempremental Tris was, and his shoulders slouched, and he hung his head. "Tris!" He tried, as his one last feeble attempt, "Tris come back! We need your help with this! We need you to help us fight this thing!" But her limp body stayed limp, the good thing was that she wasn't dead. But Briar knew something must be awfully wrong to put down Tris, it took a lot to do that. So slowly, with his last bit of stregnth, his magical self entered her body, and he searched for unknown magical traces, to try to save his friend.

"Forget about the fight.." he thought, and embedded it into her brain.

"No..." came a whisper. Briar jerked up with the recognition of the voice. "Tr-" he stared.

"Not now..." came the reply, before he could finish.

"You know you're too stubborn for your own good!" he said, exasperated, "And if you won't do it for me, at least do it for Winding Circle!"

By that point, he was back to his regular body, and looking down at Tris, who's eyelids were slowly fluttering open. "Fine.." she whispered, so softly, so that only he could hear, "But this isn't for you...it's for here, for my home. But it's plant magic Briar...Oh GOds! Get someone!" He didn't have to ask what was wrong, he felt the pressure against his lungs as well, it was the downside of sharing magic with the four. Over to his right, he saw Sandry clutch her chest, and Kirel hold Daja up. Slowly he stood up, to report his findings to the rest.

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A week later, they gathered around a table, set in a conference room. During that week, they hadn't found a way to solve their problem, until Niko finally all called them to the meeting.

"I think I've seen things like this before...it's decimated entire cities and communities before" Niko said, to the other dedicates, as well as the four mages. "It drains the power at the center, and with that, kills many of the inhabitants. I have suspicions about who is doing this...but I think it's too early to say. But it's awfully hard to fight, only a mage of the same kind can fight it...And even then it's hard. That mage has to connect to the actual halo, so it can get to it's center." Niko looked over at Briar, who just nodded in response.

"I heard Tris...a plant mage made it." Briar said, looking each dedicate straight in the eyes.

"You know I could do this, " Rosethorn replied. But it was a futile attempt, and really done just out of politeness. Briar had turned out much more powerful than his mentor, and for once,Rosethorn actually shrank back. They were all scared, Niko had informed them on the consequences of trying to fight this thing, most of the mages who had succesfully battled it, had died in the process. "It either needs to be deposited somewhere, or 'returned' to it's creator. Who is often the hardest person to find." Niko had told them.

"But we need a link" Lark commented, wringing her hands together as she spoke, and looked at Briar. How are you going to link to the thing without turning out like Tris did?" she asked him.

"I think you just answered it..." Sandry told Lark, and the rest. "Through Tris...she touched the thing, she probably has some of it in her, and Briar can probably trace it back to the halo."

Sandry looked over at Briar after she said that, he held her gaze for a few seconds, but returned it to the table.

Sandry knew what she was doing, she was only going to pull them closer together. And after she saw the way he had looked when Tris had gotten blown back, and then their two knots lighting up, she thought she knew what was going on...But gave Briar the benefit of the doubt. But still...this was the love of HER life..."I may not be his..." she thought, "But Briar...I love you..." she had thought to herself, and had whispered it to him at night.

But her attention was soon brought back to the mages at the table. "We need to get Tris to get a bit...stronger. But the longer we wait, the bigger the risk we take." Niko said again, "And there's the matter of where to put the energy after..."

"I don't want to wait!" Briar said, "I can't wait! There are people DYING out there, and i'll die for them, but I won't let this keep on going!"

That had decided them, it may sound petty, but it did. Briar was right, and they knew waiting a couple of days would just end up having another 100 people's death certificates sent to the temple.

"Very Well Briar...It's your power, it's your choice...You may begin when you please."

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TO BE CONTINUED...

A/N: Again..not a lot of romance, but i'm getting there!!!!